Michael McDonald Spills About Working With Grizzly Bear

These days, everything's coming up Grizzly Bear. On Sunday, Jay-Z and BeyoncĂŠ went to the band's show in Brooklyn, and as we reported yesterday, Jay had some nice things to say about the band and the "indie rock movement" in general.

The other big piece of Grizzly Bear news yesterday was that the magnificently bearded white soul belter (and noted Paul Rudd nemesis) Michael McDonald had sung lead on a new version of the band's song ["While You Wait for the Others"](http://pitchfork.com/reviews/tracks/11183-while-you-wait-for-the-others/ ""While You Wait for the Others"" ). The former Doobie Brother's version is on the flip of the band's new single. You can cop it right now from iTunes or pre-order the 7" from the band's website.

Apparently, McDonald, who calls himself "a big fan of the band", hit up a New York Grizzly Bear show (just like Jay!), where mutual friend and Chairlift manager Molly Hawkins introduced him to the band. Pretty soon afterward, someone approached McDonald about singing the song, and he was all about it. McDonald had first added some backing vocals to the track, but the band liked his work so much that they asked him to sing lead.

Quoth McDonald: "I was really impressed with the show. Their songs were alluring and interesting. So when they mentioned to me about doing this, I said absolutely."

McDonald also echoed Jay-Z's "what the indie rock movement is doing right now is very inspiring" angle. He hears a musical bond between the Grizz's intricately filigreed chamber pop and his own past work: "When I was with the Doobies, the style of music was that we all went over the falls with chord progressions, trying to make things as complex and interconnected as possible. The punk movement swung towards being as primitive as possible, but now it's back to where these guys are good musicians. I never thought that would come back around, but it has."

McDonald added, "I think I could be doing the same thing-- trying to make those ethereal records, where there's the song and the arrangement, but there's something in between and you get sucked in."

You have to love any sentence that starts out with "When I was with the Doobies..."

As previously reported, McDonald's honeyed pipes will also appear on a forthcoming track from NY nu-disco group Holy Ghost!, a collaboration that McDonald says came together much like the Grizzly Bear one: "In both cases, I was approached from the standpoint of 'We've got something that you would be perfect for.' When I heard that, I thought, 'How would they ever make that correlation?' But oddly enough, it seemed to work."